Monday, January 31, 2011

F Egypt, And The Rest Of The Middle East.

So we've got all this mess in Cairo taking up our airwaves. Why do we care? Because we have been too involved in other people's' shit for far too long.

Egypt has been run by a kleptocracy that only differs from the one ours has become by a matter of degrees. One big, glowing difference to take note of though: much of what has been 'klept' in Egypt came from the pockets of American taxpayers. So how's that grabbing you, huh?
All these years, paying these folks to stay calm, and this is how they repay us? Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam, France... seems everybody we 'aid' just gets mad at us.
Am I the only one noticing this pattern?

Now we are supposed to be concerned with the outcome.
If we weren't so involved in the first place, the outcome wouldn't much matter. Ever stop to think of that? It just so happens other people tend to get pissed off when you're in their grill all the time. There will be retribution, and don't be surprised when some of the blood gets shed on American soil by some raging Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood guy with a hard-on for Paradise.

This will not end well. Not only should we have learned sooner, we probably won't learn it this time, either.

Saturday, January 29, 2011

Foxfier engages in Anti-Indianism.
I like it.

Thursday, January 27, 2011

I Don't Think So...

OK, for just a few minutes assume that you are a hyper-intelligent lifeform from another galaxy far, far away or whatever...

Now, imagine that you're out there, flying around, doing the hyper-intelligent lifeform thing, because that's what you do...
and you're looking for a cool place to hang, maybe colonize, raise a family or whatever hyper-intelligent lifeforms like to do...

...and right there below you is Los Angeles, and you decide, "Yeah, that's it!"

I'll just wait for Robert to tell us all about it because I think it's gonna suck.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Was There A Speech Last Night?

Big yawn...
In other, more interesting news:
Chad Johnson wants to be Chad Johnson, again.

The Bengals receiver told host Trey Wingo on ESPN's "NFL Live" last night that he plans on changing his name back to Johnson, three years after he legally changed his surname to Ochocinco in 2008 so he could wear his self-awarded nickname above the No. 85 on his jersey.

I think he should just go another step further and change his name to a glyph that looks something like this: 85



At 30yrs old, he's not in his peak form anymore, but he can still 'jump up and get it', unlike the typical 'elite' Bears receiver.
Hello, Angelo??? Are you reading this?

Monday, January 24, 2011

Off My Chest...

It's amazing the classless acts that make up the world of the NFL. Anyone that questions Jay Cutler's toughness is an egghead, a moron, and an idiot.(I have other words I can use, but I'm holding back.)

Maybe next time his O-Line throws him to the sharks, he should put on the show, insist on riding the stretcher to the locker room, leaving his backup to fend for himself instead of staying with his team on the sideline and coaching the new guy between snaps.

Jay Cutler is as tough as any man out there, who's taken more punishment due to an ineffective O-Line than any other QB in the game. And he's never once pitched a bitch about it.
He has my support, my full support, and these hometown 'fans' need to go fuck themselves. Preferably, with the wide end of a cheese wedge.

Saturday, January 22, 2011


If Ditka is praying, how can we go wrong?

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Gooks In The Wire

The Gardena I grew up in was about as diverse a population as you could find, with roughly equal representations of Blacks, Whites, Asians and Hispanics. Generally, an OK place to live; a well run city that for the most part did a decent job at keeping things in check, with a responsible and respectable police force that knew how to drop the hammer, as well as when not to.

No, it was not all unicorns and butterflies.
There were some neighborhoods that a wiser man of lighter complexion would fear to tread. Gardena was bordered on two sides by less desirable regions belonging to the City of Los Angeles, with is subsequential ethnic/cultural run-off.

We lived the heavily Asian central region; same neighborhood as city hall, the library and police/fire departments. Asians, in this case, meant Japanese (Nisei and Sansei). They could be irritatingly cliquish at times, but they knew how to behave themselves personally as well as socially, holding many leadership/political positions in the city. For the outsider, their influence is readily noticeable in the city's architecture and landscaping. (For what it's worth... every stereotype about these people is true. I'll just say that now,OK?)

A few blocks to the south, things got 'browner'. Lots of Mexicans of varying social classes. Safety wasn't too big of a problem. An occasional fight/stabbing among the Cholo class here and there. Or a wedding. It was often hard to tell the difference. (No, I'm not joking.)
Many families from this part of town had been settled since the 1910's or 20's, and had become, in a sense, social clans. Five to eight kids to a family, and after three generations, you got a real tribe forming, ya know? Good people, active in the Church, Little Leagues and local VFW.
It was into this neighborhood that my family first settled in 1967. Relationships formed here among the Cholos kept me in good standing when a situation in 'the streets' threatened to get sticky. (I personally knew Spider, Guido, Droopy, and Gato when they were little kids without tattoos and rap sheets.)

The north end (known as Holly Park) was considerably darker. Black, to be specific. Not too unlike any other working class Black neighborhood with all of it's economic issues and social misbehavior. Most people here were getting by the best they could, hoping eventually to move on to Whiter pastures. But still, where there are Blacks, there are issues. This made the north Gardena the 'other' Gardena, and more dangerous. This is where the strip clubs, hookers, and muggings became the social fabric, especially along the unincorporated county corridor. I had some friends from school (private and Catholic) who lived there , and my folks used to always worry about me going to hang with them.
They much preferred to host at our place, but it didn't usually work out that way. I went where I wanted, wherever my bike or skateboard would take me.

Gardena took great pains to limit the cultural run off of our bad neighbor, the City of Los Angeles. (Now, do you see where my deeply rooted bias against anything "L.A." comes from?) From extensive 'take-no-shit' policing, to neighborhood activism, various programs and what not...

The local high school was always in a battle against the various pressures. Trying to keep the place as safe and decent as it could while obligated to house the darker elements of it's student population. There were always issues, but nothing rising to the inner city level. As for me, I went on to the Catholic high school across town, to the west. Everything 'west' was nicer than Gardena, and is where I spent the majority of my teen years.

Self propagation is the nature of social decay. The city's efforts, and those of it's namesake high school, have been more successful than not considering the mixed bag of trash deposited in it's yard. I always said it was just a matter of time before Gardena could no longer hold it's perimeter.

It appears that time has come:
Shooting at Gardena High School Injures 2

Sunday, January 16, 2011

I'm thinkin that a freindly wager on next week's epic struggle over the Halas Trophy might be fun...

Thursday, January 13, 2011

For The Benster...

Baltimore Ravens @ Pittsburgh Steelers
Steelers. I see divisional rivals that are equally matched. It'll be a bitter struggle, but homefield will make the Steelers just that much more equaler.

New York Jets @ New England Patriots
Patriots. And they'll make it personal.

Seattle Seahawks @ Chicago Bears
Bears. Open wide, Seattle. Matt Forte is running this ball down your throat.

Green Bay Packers @ Atlanta Falcons
Packers. Atlanta is the better team, Green Bay is on an emotional high, it's a crazy year...
and I'm sincerly hoping I called this one wrong.



What say you, Benster?

The Trend

It's just wrong.

Not Good

My Lord...how things have changed...

The State of California is bragging on the great success of one it's welfare programs.

California’s paid family leave law, one of only two in the country, has provided valuable benefits to workers without the negative consequences feared by employers, according to a new study released Tuesday. (actually, that's not true. I see the negative effects on the production floor all the time, when overtime is required by the unwilling to cover for the mandated missing.)

“Paid family leave has been remarkably successful in California since the state first created it six years ago,” said co-author Ruth Milkman, professor of sociology at UCLA and the City University of New York. “It has helped hundreds of thousands of workers – especially in low-wage jobs – balance the costs and challenges of tending to family and work, and it has begun to close the gap in access to paid leave benefits.”

Basically, it's used mostly by younger men to avoid work after they've bred their women.
The namby-pamby idea is to help a family bond with their new baby during those all important weeks immediately after birth, when the baby's eyes are mostly closed and wouldn't know Daddy from Sancho as long as the bottle is tipped and flowing, and the wipes are kept warm.

Back in my breeding years, being a new Daddy meant it was time stop goofing off and Man Up. Get off my ass, get a job, get a better job and work longer hours cause I had a family to feed.

Taking several weeks off 'to bond' was not the manly to do. I still don't think it is. Bonding was done after work, after I'd brought home the bread and milk, and put a roof over Baby's head (and Mommy's), and fulfilled my duties as a Man before I could become The Dad.

There was pride in that world view. A sense of responsibilities being met. A way to say to the world that I was worthy of the "Man" title. Any dick could make a baby, but it took a Man to be a Father.

I know, I know... the world seems to be a different place to some. But don't let that fool you. The rules of what makes a stable civilization have not changed. Boys should Man Up if they want the privilege of breeding. That concept should be the expected norm.

And a State that encourages otherwise is doing no favors in the long run.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Sister Would Rap Your Knuckles For That


This was found at my former parish in Anaheim.

I'd say it's safe to assume that the perpetrator was not a product of Catholic education.

Sunday, January 9, 2011

Shout Out

Minnesota's greatest multi-disciplinary artist and one of my favorite people-I've-never-met Vas Littlecrow, is back to blogging again.

I've always appreciated her unique take on life, politics, art or any other bullshit topic that I could think of.

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Incoherent Discharge

I don't understand monetary policy or any of that super smart stuff that makes money work the way it does, but I can't help but wonder if maybe it was massive FAIL for Europe to adopt a common currency (the Euro), a few years back.

I understand some of the reasoning behind the idea, like ease of commerce... and all that. But now I'm starting to wonder if commonality did more to disguise some of Europe's major economic problems pertaining, primarily, to the welfare statism adopted post war.

It looks to me like a situation where the sloppier nations were allowed to get away sloppiness a lot longer than otherwise would have been the case, with the more responsible nations, like Germany now having to pick up the mess.

My ignorant opinion is that the Euro should be shit canned, and replaced with national currencies, like it used to be. Poorly run economies would be punished more readily with declining currency values.

Weigh in, if you want to. I'm just tossing thoughts into the wind...

Predictions With Minimal Commentary

New Orleans Saints @ Seattle Seahawks:
Seahawks, as much as I'd hate to say it and only because it's a strange year.

New York Jets @ Indianapolis Colts:
Colts, if only to shut down the Jets' swagger.

Baltimore Ravens @ Kansas City Chiefs:
Chiefs, because Missouri is a way cooler place to be from than Maryland.

Green Bay Packers @ Philadelphia Eagles:
The cheese hype ends here.


*edited: So far, I'm 1-1 for this weekend. That is still one better than Mr. D and the Benster. Calling you out, Benster!

**re-edited: The D's stage a comeback, and I get blanked on Sunday. Hat tip, Benster,

Friday, January 7, 2011

I drink a wide range of beers. Snobbery in this catagory is not something I can be accused of, though I am as capable of it as any.
That said...
Hamm's is great when you put a double shot of Jack in it.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Beetle Juice

It's doesn't normally surprise me when I'm reminded about just how little the average American realizes concerning the source of his food. We are so accustomed to having everything delivered to us in pretty packages, displayed neatly on long shelves, bright lighting, plastic trays ...
We eat so cleanly, or so we believe, that simple things appal us, like images of dead livestock. Or more to my point, the disgusted reactions I sometimes get when delivering to the butcher a deer carcass in an open truck bed.

So, yes, I am aware that food is not always 'pretty' and that even I don't always know what goes into that which also goes into my mouth.

And I'm sitting here, eating breakfast and reading news stories on my computer, when I come across this little gem of curiosity.

“There are lots of actual bug parts in your food all the time, and the FDA knows and approves of it. Insects happen,” writes Bug Girl in a rather delightful blog post. “It’s part of living on Earth, and we just can’t get things sterile, no matter how much we try. Why not join the rest of the world and start adding insects as a regular part of your diet?

Ya know, I kill (some) of my meat. I've grown up eating from the backyard. My father grew up on a farm, and fed me animals I had petted just a few hours earlier...
I get it. Seriously, I do.

I just wasn't expecting to become quite this re-informed while half way through a container of blueberry yogurt...


...that I couldn't finish.

Sunday, January 2, 2011

Little Fockers

It's been a few years since Greg and Pam Focker began their life of wedded bliss, chronicled in "Meet The Parents" and it's over the top sequel "Meet The Fockers".

Today's episode introduces us to the The Little Fockers: twins, one boy, one girl, about five years of age. The short: both kids are disrespectful shits who wouldn't survive the day in my home, and bring nothing of substance to the Focker saga. Enough of that.

The plot centers around Jack Byrnes' (De Niro) quest to anoint a patriarchal successor after brushing up against thoughts of his own mortality. As expected, this means putting his family, and more specifically his son-in-law, through hell.
Jessica Alba joins the cast as a perky and flirty pharmaceutical rep that's needs a bitch slappin'.

"Meet The Parents" was a very good comedy. "Meet The Fockers" was a decently entertaining follow-up. Many of the same themes are hit, same pranks, same gags, same characters, same yeah... whatever. It's old now, and much of it just falls flat.

A worthy Netflix pick, if you're really interested, but don't waste a theater ticket on this.